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How do you grow an agency to multiple 7 figures in just a few years?
That question will be answered with this interview that I conducted with Jonathan Dane.
You definitely want to read this one. Jonathan Dane is the CEO of KlientBoost, an agency based in San Diego that is about to close $10m in revenue this year ($800k MRR).
This blog contains the summarized dialogue of the interview that I had with Johnathan.
We’ll be talking about:
- Internal marketing
- Sales
- Outbound sales
- How they’re hiring
- How their team is organized
- Much more
Let’s jump into it.
Tell us a little about yourself, KlientBoost and how you guys got started.
- KlientBoost has only been up for 4 years and has 60 people on the team.
- Almost at $10m ARR ($800k MRR).
How did it all start?
- Jonathan used to sell a lot of things on Craigslist. Creating listings on Craigslist got him started with marketing.
- Got an in-house job as a customer service rep. The CEO wanted him to look into Google AdWords so he attended a 2-day seminar about AdWords (which was paid for).
- After learning the basics, Jonathan offered Google AdWords services on Craigslist and people called him.
How long ago was this?
- 7 years ago.
So you’ve been doing this for more than 4 years?
- Before KlientBoost, he had another agency called Disruptive Advertising that has about 130 people today.
- Been in PPC for about 7-8 years in total.
So you left that agency… how did that exit go?
- Made $15,000/month in college doing client work.
- One of his clients wanted to partner up so he charged him $20,000.
- About 1.5 years later, he asked to get bought out the company to go back to Southern California.
How has having a family with two young kids impacted the business?
- Stopped caring less about small details.
- Been able to delegate a lot more.
Can you break down what your team looks like?
- The departments are called pods. Each pod consisted of two account managers and one designer.
- The team handles most of the design stuff.
- Creates a bunch of creatives to have what they call a “war chest of ads.”
- Run the ads then have Facebook tell us what works and what doesn’t.
- They have e-commerce teams, enterprise teams, etc.
- Every account manager (the person doing the work and working directly with the client) manages at least $30,000 of monthly recurring revenue (not adspend).
- Depends on the clients service packaging (some clients don’t get CRO so there is no designer needed).
What does your sales process look like?
- Most clients are inbound so by the time they come in, they’re already sold.
- Everything is templatized except for the end of the sales process. They run a screen share to figure out what they are suffering from, what their goals are, etc.
- Inbound is much easier than outbound because inbound leads are already sold.
How much time and effort do you put into your personal brand?
- Absolutely nothing.
- The end goal is to sell the company. It’s hard to sell a company being the face of it. One of the main concerns for investors is something called “key man risks,” which is when an organization is dependent on one individual.
- People want to work with people who are quiet and just focusing on work.
What does your marketing team look like?
- Up until this past year it was all Johnathan, now he has a full team (6 people) dedicated ONLY to brand marketing.
- It’s extremely important to invest in your brand because of the amount of competition out there.
- Keep in mind “What’s everybody NOT doing?”
Where do your inbound leads come from?
- All content.
How many people are on your sales team?
- Six right now. Two outside, four inside.
- Two are doing outbound.
Do you have an internal projects?
- We came out with ad software called Kite.
- Kite was built to increase productivity internally.
- Kite scans your Google and Facebook ads, asks you what you want to achieve (improved CPA, improved conversion volume, improved ROAS, etc) and tells you what you need to change about your ads to help you get to your goal.
What is nandrolone decanoate buy online your favorite book?
Do you have a favorite podcast?
- It is called BoostSauce.
- BoostSauce has three experts in one topic per episode.
What is your biggest goal for 2020?
- Getting an investor for KlientBoost.
- Increase profit margins.
- $1.5m in MRR.
